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From 1955, Fabio Testi's home town Peschiera del Garda was also home to Bertolazzi Film, a motion picture studio which specialised in the production of colourful pirate movies. Lake Garda was merrily used as the ersatz Caribbean. At Bertolazzi, young Fabio began his career first as an extra, then as a stunt man and body double. As a stunt man, he appeared in the classic westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and (as one of Henry Fonda's minions in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). He started getting small film roles from 1967 and this helped to finance his architectural studies at the Antòn Maria Lorgna Institute in Verona. After graduating, Testa did not became a surveyor as originally planned, but made commercials for Coca Cola and proceeded to further studies at Verona's Academy of Fine Arts to improve his acting. For several years, he appeared in genre films, often lesser spaghetti westerns like One Damned Day at Dawn... Django Meets Sartana! (1970). As a bona fide action hero, his athletic prowess and imposing physique became a definite asset. Nonetheless, still dissatisfied with the roles he was getting, Testi attended diction classes in Cambridge to improve his English and went to London for acting lessons.

Upon his return to Italy, he finally made his breakthrough after being picked by Vittorio De Sica for the role of the ill-fated Giampiero in the Oscar-winning historical drama The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970). In the wake of the picture's success, Testi has alternated between performing in art films by directors like Claude Chabrol and Denys de La Patellière, and genre films of the giallo (What Have You Done to Solange? (1972)) or poliziotteschi/crime variety (Camorra (1972), Revolver (1973), I guappi (1974)). Over the years he has acted alongside international stars like Oliver Reed, Anthony Quinn, Robert Mitchum (in The Ambassador (1984)), Eli Wallach and David Hemmings. By the mid-1980's, Testi was seen more often in television productions. In the 90's, he also turned his attention towards the theatre with a role in a stage adaptation of Federico Fellini's La Strada (1954).

Though still very active on the screen, Testi has had the time to sideline as a kiwi farmer, an enterprise which grew from a hobby into a lucrative business (Italy, as a result, becoming Europe's first producer of kiwi fruit). In 2006, Testi ran for political office as Mayor of Verona, representing the conservative Cattolici Liberali Cristiani.

As an unapologetically self-confessed Latin lover type, Testi has made headlines in the press (particularly the Italian gossip press) not only for the work in his chosen profession, but also for a series of well publicized romantic entanglements with actresses Ursula Andress, Edwige Fenech, Jean Seberg and Charlotte Rampling. He was married to the Spanish fashion designer and make-up artist Lola Navarro from 1984 to 1996. His second wife has been art gallery curator Antonella Liguori.

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